


todays another day to find you

by CupofSonic



Series: Dimension Hopping 101 [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Eighth Doctor is the War Doctor, Episode AU: The Day of the Doctor, F/M, Immortal Rose Tyler, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29576184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CupofSonic/pseuds/CupofSonic
Summary: "I want to be, well not human; I haven't been human for a very long time, but I want to live again, Doctor. That box... it's not like the TARDIS. It's a black void where I hover in stasis, I can't even dream in there. I've spent the last few centuries trying to manipulate the timelines and keep the Moment from ever needing to be used. I miss the sun and the feeling of the ground beneath my feet. I want to live again. That's worth the risk."
Relationships: Eighth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, Twelfth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Dimension Hopping 101 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1681489
Comments: 4
Kudos: 87





	todays another day to find you

"It's you!" The Doctor gasped, staring at the blonde woman who'd appeared on top of the Moment. "From the festival." 

  
  


She smiled sadly at him. "In a way." 

  
  


"What does that mean? No, never mind. Get out of here. It's not safe." He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up from her perch on the box. "Most dangerous weapon in the universe and you're using it as a chair." 

  
  


"Why can't it be both, Doctor?" The girl asked, and he dug through his memory for a name. She'd told him, he was sure. But this body wasn't exactly good at holding onto important information. 

  
  


"Because it can't! Now go! There must be somewhere on this miserable planet left for you to go that doesn't involve bothering me." 

  
  


"I'm here for you, Doctor. Because you need me." Her voice was achingly soft, so _ kind _ that it burned. 

  
  


"I don't need anyone. I don't require your pity or whatever condolences you might offer for what I'm about to do." He growled, going back to examining the Moment for a way to activate it. He jerked back when the metal singed his fingers. "Ooh that's hot."

  
  


"Well I try my best." The girl snarked but it didn't have much heart in it. 

  
  


The Doctor blinked up at her. "You're the interface?  _ You're _ the interface! Of course. They said the Moment had a consciousness. But why do you look like that?" 

  
  


"Don't you like it? I chose this form specifically for you. It's from your past, and your future." She did a little twirl for him, showcasing the pink hoodie and jeans she had on. 

  
  


"I don't have a future. Not after this." He muttered, staring at the box. 

  
  


The interface sat down on the box again, forcing him to look at her. "Do you want to see?" 

  
  


He nodded, unable to resist the smidgen of hope that came with knowing that the Universe would carry on after the war. The interface stood and waved a hand, creating a glowing portal. "Here we go then. Right through there is your future." 

  
  


The portal churned for a moment then a bright red fez can tumbling out, bounding onto the dusty barn floor. "Well I wasn't expecting that." The Moment interface said and the Doctor laughed for the first time in what felt like centuries.

  
  


"That generally seems to be how this day is going." He remarked, looking her over. "Do you have a name? Seems rather rude to keep calling you 'the interface'." 

  
  


The interface laughed, "Right, in this form I'm called Ro-" she cut off suddenly like her throat had closed against her will. "Bad Wolf!" She managed to gasp out. "Call me Bad Wolf." 

  
  


*** 

  
  


The Doctor looked over UNIT's lovely little corkboard that was peppered with pictures of him and his companions. There was a lovely one of his current face with Charley from that horrid escapade with the Hellfire Club. But that wasn't what he was looking for. 

  
  


He'd seen the longing looks the Bad Wolf had been giving the pinstriped version of himself the entire time they'd been with him. That was  _ her _ Doctor, the one that she'd traveled with before she'd become the Moment's consciousness. And there she was! In a similar outfit, holding Stripey's hand, the both of them beaming at each other. He looked around the room, making sure no one was looking but nearly everyone else was caught up in negotiations with the Zygons and that suited his needs just fine. He pulled the pin out and took the photo down. Her name was written on the back.  _ Rose Tyler.  _

  
  


"Found you." The Moment, Rose Tyler, caught his eye from across the room and gave him a disapproving look before pointedly glancing down at the chair she was standing next to. But he couldn't bring himself to feel properly chastised. He'd been looking for her for so long since that festival on Gallifrey. And here were the answers to at least some of his questions. 

  
  


He put the photo back up before going over to the chair Rose was next to. "You shouldn't have done that. Future knowledge is dangerous." She scolded as he sat down. 

  
  


"I'm going to have to forget this anyway. What's a few moments of satisfied curiosity?" 

  
  


"Everything. It'll break his hearts to remember this." Rose said, looking at the future Doctors; the stripey one be seemed to be giving a speech about fair play at this point. 

  
  


The Doctor observed her carefully. "You're much too complex to be a simple interface with a consciousness. How did you end up in there?" 

  
  


Rose smiled at him, tight-lipped and devoid of joy. "I knew too much and I tried to leverage that in exchange for transport off Gallifrey because I'd been trying to get home. And that was deemed a threat to Gallifrey. So they shoved me in here." 

  
  


"I'm sorry." He felt a strong urge to reach out and hold her hand, but aside from the one time he'd touched her in the barn, she'd been completely insubstantial. 

  
  


"I'm selfish." Rose admitted softly, hugging herself while her eyes stayed trained on Stripey. "I could have just done my job back in the barn. Giving you your options and let you choose. But I've always known what you choose and I couldn't pass up a chance to see him one last time. It's been so long." The longing in her voice hit him like a freight train and suddenly the weight of her soul was on his conscience too. Because if he used the Moment, she would cease to exist, wouldn't she? 

  
  


The Doctor mulled this over, testing out the new burden of it. He'd assumed, going into this, that seeing how much better off the universe was would be a comfort. And it was. But the thought of someone else getting pulled into this mess because of him? Heartbreaking. 

  
  


"Hello." 

  
  


The Doctor looked up, startled from his musings and smiled softly for the bowtied one's companion. "Hello." 

  
  


Her eyes were soft and pleading, asking for something he didn't understand. He'd never had a companion look at him like that before. "I'm Clara. We haven't really met yet." 

  
  


"I look forward to it. Is there a problem?" 

  
  


Clara took a deep breath and started talking, the words flowing out of her like she couldn't stop. "The Doctor, my, my Doctor, he's always talking about the day he did it. The day he wiped out the Time Lords to stop the War." 

  
  


Rose looked over at them, seemingly surprised. So this was a more recent development, then. "One would." He said vaguely and Rose snorted. 

Clara shook her head, "That's the thing: you wouldn't. Because you haven't done it yet. It's still in your future." 

  
  


"You're very sure of yourself." 

  
  


"He regrets it. I see it in his eyes every day. He'd do anything to change it." Ah. She wanted him to change his mind. But she had no way of knowing what she was asking of him.  _ Her  _ Doctor wouldn't even exist if he hadn't destroyed Gallifrey. 

  
  


"Including saving all these people. How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think?" He felt Rose settle a hand on his shoulder and did his best not to jump. Her hand felt surprisingly light, like if he pushed too hard he'd just pass right through. "Look over there. Humans and Zygons working together for peace." He said to get himself back on track. "How did you know?" 

  
  


"Your eyes. You're so much younger." The Doctor almost snorted at that, considering how young the bowtie one looked. 

  
  


"Then, all things considered, it's time I grew up. I've seen all I needed. The moment has come." Rose's hand is more solid on his shoulder so he stood up and grabbed it, holding tight as he dared. "I'm ready." 

  
  


"I know you are." Rose said softly, her expression heartbreaking. The portal opened back up behind them and they stepped through, vanishing while Clara's back was turned. 

  
  


*** 

  
  


The Doctor choked when he saw the big red, rose shaped button that the Moment's casing had grown in their absence. "You wanted a big red button." Rose said fondly. 

  
  


"It's a bit on the nose. Or should I say on the 'rose'?" He joked and Rose groaned. 

  
  


"Oh that was terrible. I cannot believe that's going to be the last joke I ever hear." 

  
  


The silly, slightly hysterical mood vanished in an instant. "You really expect me to do this?" He asked, gingerly touching the button. "You're asking me to kill you." 

  
  


"One button, Doctor and that's it. No more Time Lords, no more Daleks. And the universe will be safe. I can't make the choice for you. I can't even tell you which choice I would prefer." She said, looking down at the box she'd lived in for so long. "But you've seen what you become." 

  
  


"No more you." He looked back up at her, his eyes burning. "You'll be consumed alone with the Moment." 

  
  


She nodded even though it hadn't been a question. "Don't let what's going to happen to me make your choice. I've lived a good long life, longer than I'd ever expected and I've seen things, wonders, that I never could have dreamed of. Don't pick my life over saving the universe." She smiled then, a rueful and bitter thing, “Besides, I don’t think my consciousness being stored in a weapon, really counts as ‘alive.’”

  
  


"And what of my future selves? Do you think Pinstripes will ever be able to forgive himself if he remembers doing this?" The Doctor snapped. "I barely know you and I know this is going to haunt me for the rest of my lives."

  
  


Rose kept watching him, her eyes sad but understanding. "Do you know the sound the TARDIS makes? That sort of wheezing groaning?" He nodded, not understanding the sudden non sequitur. "That sound brings hope, wherever it goes. Even to you." 

  
  


The Doctor blinked at her, not understanding what she was trying to say until he heard it; the most beautiful sound in the universe. He watched in awe as two TARDISes materialized across the room. "What have you done?" He demanded before anyone could step out but Rose had vanished. 

  
  


*** 

“I told you.” Clara said as she stepped out of one of the TARIDSes. “He hasn't done it yet.”

  
  


The Doctor stood there gobsmacked for a moment, wondering where Rose had gone. “Get out of here, all of you. This is my burden.”

  
  


“These events should be time-locked.” The pinstriped version of his future mused, looking around the barn, “ We shouldn't even be here.”

  
  


The bowtie one all but rolled his eyes. “So something let us through.”

  
  


“You clever boys.” Rose said, popping up on a crate near the pinstriped one and the Doctor jumped from the surprise. She looked pleased as punch, like they’d done exactly what she’d expected them to do.

  
  


But the Doctor didn’t need future versions of himself nattering on, judging him for the choices he was being forced to make. “Go back. Go back to your lives. Go and be the Doctor that I failed to be.” Rose suddenly turned her intense gaze on him and he felt like he was being chastised even though she hadn’t said a word.

  
  


“I spent so many years trying to bury this in my memories.” Pinstripes said, tugging on his ear like it was a nervous twitch.

  
  


“Pretending this day didn't exist. Keeping it a secret, even from myself.” Bowties added, he seemed much less inclined to look around the barn, his eyes never really straying from the Moment.

  
  


“Pretending you weren't the Doctor, when you were the Doctor more than anybody else.” Pinstripes added and Bowtie mouthed the words along with him. So he was starting to remember then. 

  
  


Bowtie glanced over to the crate that Rose was still perched on, but his eyes skipped over her “You were the Doctor on the day it wasn't possible to get it right.” He sounded distracted.

  
  


“But this time,” Pinstripes said rather pointedly, pulling Bowtie’s attention back to the subject at hand. 

  
  


Bowtie finally managed to focus on what was happening, “You don't have to do it alone.”

  
  


The Doctor wanted to glower at them and tell them exactly how not-alone he was but he couldn’t. Rose had asked him to keep her presence a secret and he would keep that promise. They came and put their hands on the button with him and he hated them for it. Hated them for showing up and interrupting the conversion he’d been having, for rushing him in making this choice when all he wanted was to spend a few more minutes with someone who didn’t expect him to be anything other than himself. “Thank you,” he choked out for appearances sake. 

“What we do today is not out of fear or hatred. It is done because there is no other way.” Pinstripes stressed, like he was trying to convince himself. And perhaps, in a way, he was.

  
  


Bowtie, with his ever-present fidgeting, lifted his hand and set it back down, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he spoke, “And it is done in the name of the many lives we are failing to save.” He glanced up at his companion who shook her head and looked so infinitely sad. “What? What is it?”

  
  


“Nothing.”

  
  


“No, it's something. Tell me.”

  
  


Clara wiped a tear off her face, “You told me you wiped out your own people. I just. I never pictured you doing it, that's all.”

  
  


Rose hopped down off her crate and waved a hand, making the room go dark around them, “Take a closer look.”

  
  


“What's happening?” Clara asked, slightly panicked. 

  
  


“Nothing. It's a projection.” The Doctor said softly, his eyes locked on Rose, why was she showing them this now? What did Clara understanding the realities of the Time War have to do with ending it?

  
  


“It's a reality around you.” Rose countered even though the Doctor was the only one who could hear.

  
  


“These are the people you're going to burn?” Clara demanded. 

  
  


Pinstripes glanced around briefly before looking at Clara, “There isn't anything we can do,” he said hopelessly. 

  
  


“He's right.” Bowtie agreed. “There isn't another way. There never was. Either I destroy my own people or let the universe burn.”

  
  


“Look at you. The three of you. The warrior, the hero, and you.” Clara stood in front of her Doctor, apparently deciding that now was the correct time to have a heart to heart and the Doctor wished again that they’d never come. He could have spent these precious minutes on other things. 

  
  


“You told me the name you chose was a promise. What was the promise?” Clara asked, pulling the Doctor out of his musings. 

  
  


“Then he lied.” The Doctor cut in, cutting off whatever his future selves might have said. “We chose the name because we liked the way it sounded. I never had such lofty aspirations to make a promise out of a name.” 

His older selves glared at him briefly before spouting some nonsense about never being cruel or cowardly. Had destroying Gallifrey changed him that much? That he'd decided to pretend that he wasn't a coward? That he'd pointedly ignore that doing this  _ was _ the coward's way out? 

The fighting stopped around them, everything frozen in a single instant. The three Doctors stared at each other in silent discussion. He could tell what Bowties was thinking and he didn’t like it.

  
  


“You're not actually suggesting that we change our own personal history?” Pinstripes said to Bowtie as the images of the war faded from around them. 

  
  


“We change history all the time. I'm suggesting far worse.”

  
  


“What, exactly?” The Doctor snapped, ready to cut to the chase. He wanted to feel excited, to feel the hope, but after so long, after finding out that he’d been lying to himself about even his own name- hope felt impossible.

  
  


“Gentlemen, I have had four hundred years to think about this. I've changed my mind.” Bowtie said with a grin that the Doctor automatically hated, just on pure principle, and aimed his sonic at the Moment, making the button close and retreat back into the casing. 

  
  


“There's still a billion billion Daleks up there, attacking.” The Doctor felt the need to point out.

  
  


“Yeah, there is. There is.”

  
  


Pinstripes seemed to have caught on, “But there's something those billion billion Daleks don't know.”

  
  


“Because if they did, they'd probably send for reinforcements.”

  
  


“What?” Clara asked, new excitement in her eyes, “What don't they know?”

  
  


“This time, there's three of us.” Bowtie said and the Doctor finally caught on. 

“Oh! Oh, yes, that is good. That is brilliant!”

  
  


Pinstripes clutched at his head and tugged on his hair, “Oh, oh, oh, I'm getting that too! That is brilliant!”

  
  


“Ha, ha, ha! I've been thinking about it for centuries.” The fool did a little spin but the Doctor was too busy beaming at Rose to really focus on him.

  
  


“You didn’t show me any old future. You showed me exactly the future I needed to see.” He said in complete disbelief. 

  
  


Rose grinned at him, a remarkable thing with her tongue caught in her teeth that made his hearts skip a beat or three, “Now you're getting it.”

  
  


One of his future selves asked a question but the Doctor couldn’t hear them, too overwhelmed by the gratitude he felt for this girl and just on the edge of his time senses, he could feel it echoing back across the years; love. Rassilon, he would love her so much some day, as if he didn’t already. The Doctor cupped her face, delighting in the fact that he could and kissed her. She hummed happily and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back just as hard. 

  
  


The other Doctors and Clara watched in shock. 

  
  


“Is he kissing someone who isn’t here? Or some that’s invisible?” Clara asked.

  
  


“You know, I honestly couldn’t tell you.” Pinstripes replied. “I don’t remember any of this. He’s always been a bit touchy feely though.”

  
  


Bowtie scoffed. “You’re one to talk.”

  
  


“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

  
  


“How many times did Elizabeth kiss you today? And even before that, there’s so many of them for you.”

  
  


“Yes but I don’t go around snogging people! Unlike Mr. Darcy. You should know that! Unless, have you forgotten her too?”

  
  


Clara took a small step away from them, wondering how long this argument was going to go on. The youngest Doctor had pulled away from his invisible kissing partner and seemed to be listening intently to someone. Interesting. 

  
  


“Well if you two are done with your spat, I’d like to get this secure on one of our TARDISes so no one just happens upon it and maybe we can all stop acting like children and actually get around to saving Gallifrey?” The Doctor picked up the box and Clara got a glimpse of some writing on the bottom.

  
  


“Does that say ‘Bad Wolf?” She said aloud, completely confused. 

  
  


“Did you just say ‘Bad Wolf’?” The pinstriped Doctor demand, whirling away from Bowtie. 

"Yeah, just there, on the bottom of the box. I think it said Bad Wolf." Clara confirmed. 

"Let me see." Pinstripes demanded, grabbing the Moment and turning it so he could see the bottom. 

The Doctor was surprised to watch Pinstripes breakout into a massive grin. "Is that important?" He asked the room, generally not understanding how the words bad wolf played into everything else that had happened today. 

"Monumentally important." Bowtie confirmed, looking over Pinstripes’ shoulder. "Though I think Sandshoes is getting his hopes over nothing." 

" _ Over nothing _ ?" Pinstripes snarled, nearly dropping the Moment to whirl around to face Bowtie. He opened his mouth, whinding up for a long rant but Bowtie cut him off. 

""The Time War Ends'. That's what Bad Wolf said, remember? She's not coming back. Just saving us from ourselves. Like she always did." 

Pinstripes deflated. "Right. Anyway, I suppose we better get on with it." He shoved the Moment back at the Doctor like it'd burned him. He went back into his TARDIS and dematerialized. 

"He'll get over it." Bowtie said to nobody in particular, but neither Clara or his past self believed him. 

  
  


***

The Doctor leaned against the console, hesitating in the vortex before he went back to the Undergallery. He needed to tell his future selves. But how was he supposed to explain that he and the girl trapped in the Moment had come up with some cockamamie scheme to get her out of the Moment, but that it was incredibly risky and there was a high chance she could die in the process? It was better to just not tell them. Let them think whatever they believed had happened to her. 

"You think it's better to live without hope than to have them crushed?" Roes asked. She was sitting in his chair, one of the few remainders of the old console room. 

"I think, when it comes to you, it's worth sparing myself a bit of pain if things don't go well. This is one happy lie that I'll let them keep." 

Rose nodded, even though he could tell she didn't truly agree. "Alright. Well, let's hope this goes well so I can smack you for doing that to yourself." 

"Are you sure you want to do this? The risks-" 

"I want to be, well not human; I haven't been human for a very long time, but I want to live again, Doctor. That box... it's not like the TARDIS. It's a black void where I hover in stasis, I can't even dream in there. I've spent the last few centuries trying to manipulate the timelines and keep the Moment from ever needing to be used. I miss the sun and the feeling of the ground beneath my feet. I want to  _ live _ again. That's worth the risk." 

*** 

Clara smacked the console just to express her frustration again before heading back down the hall. She'd thought that since the Doctor had regenerated, the TARDIS would be a bit kinder and stop hiding her bedroom. But here they were, three days into a trip and the only room she could find was the weird one with an oblong pod, like the sort of thing they use to put people in stasis in films. "Please, I am begging you. I just want to sleep."

The TARDIS hummed in what Clara had come to recognize as her 'frustration' tone and made the same door appear. 

Clara rubbed her eyes and screamed into her hands. She could go get the Doctor. If the TARDIS would let her find him. Of course that would also mean that he'd have to be willing to listen to her and this new Doctor didn't seem very interested in anything Clara did or said, unless it involved chastising her for her nonexistent romantic feelings for him. Even if that Doctor with the dark curly hair and velvet had been a bit dreamy, that was mostly Clara's Jane Austen obsession talking. 

The TARDIS hummed again, this time flashing a light under the door and Clara gave an exasperated huff. "What is so bloody important about this room?" 

She threw the door open and squeaked in surprise, the pod now had several flashing lights. "Oh that seems pretty important. Do I get the Doctor?" 

The door slammed shut behind her and Clara heard the lock click. "Oh god. Please don't tell me there's something in there that'll eat me and you're locking me in here to finish me off!" 

The pod hissed rather ominously, an invisible seam opening along the side. "Right okay. This is happening. Oh but the Doctor will be very cross if you get me killed, I think." 

The lid lifted suddenly and through the clouds of vapor pouring out, Clara could see a body, a human-looking body. Clara was properly panicking now. None of this made any sense. The body in the pod groaned and moved just a bit, like a person waking out from a deep sleep. 

"Blimey, he could 'ave mentioned the bloody headache." The body said and Clara stopped scrambling at the door. That voice... she'd heard it before. But where? 

"Hello?" Clara asked. "Who are you?"

"I'll be honest, not quite sure yet. Brain is still rebooting after-" she gestured to the pod- "that." 

"Oh. Right. Well so long as you're not going to kill me, that's okay." 

Pod girl laughed and rolled onto her side so she could see out of the pod. She was rather pretty with blonde hair and gorgeous eyes the color of honey. "No, I'm not going to kill you. Not much for the killing people, stuff. God. I'm starting to sound like him. What's your name?" 

"Clara. Clara Oswald." 

"Oh! I know you. You were there that day." 

"What? What day?" At this point, the woman was rolling out of the pod and trying to stand up but it seemed her legs weren't quite ready to hold her. She grabbed the edge of the pod to stabilize herself

"The day the Doctor ended the Time War." 

*** 

Clara couldn't breathe. How did this random woman from a stasis pod on the TARDIS know about that? Clara and the three Doctors had been the only ones in the barn aside from- "Are you the invisible person Mr. Darcy kissed?" 

The woman threw back her head and laughed. "I suppose that's the best descriptor of me in this situation." Her legs finally seemed to work so she stood up. "Any chance I could get a cup of tea? Memory is still a bit on the fritz, but I can remember that tea is supposedly the best thing to get the synapses firing again." 

The TARDIS hummed rather loudly and a cup of tea appeared on a small side table next to the woman. "Thank you, dear." The woman said, giving one of the walls a pat. She sat cross-legged on the floor and took a careful sip of tea, groaning after she swallowed. 

"I haven't had tea in so long." 

"Right, okay, sorry." Clara stammered. "But you being the invisible person that the Doctor kissed doesn't really clarify anything. Who are you? Why are you on the TARDIS?" 

The woman leaned back against the side of the pod she'd come out of and sighed. "I'm- I guess you could say I'm Bad Wolf." 

"I know that name!" Clara shouted suddenly. "It was there, in the Doctor's timeline. It was always there, like a message to lead me to him. And on the bottom of the Moment! 

"So what? Have you just been in that pod the whole time, somehow manipulating the Doctor's life to make sure I found him?" 

"No, Clara. I became Bad Wolf because one day I looked into the heart of the TARDIS and she looked into me. Together we burned across all of time and space, twisting timelines and manipulating events to keep the Doctor safe." The woman said like it was an incredibly simple thing and took another drink of her tea. "The pod was just to grow me a new body so my consciousness could be transferred out of the Moment." 

  
  


Clara gaped at her for a good thirty seconds. "Right. Not the weirdest thing I've ever heard. I was WiFi once." 

The woman grinned. "You'll have to tell me about that sometime. But first things first, don't suppose the Doctor is around?" She stood on relatively shaky legs and Clara wondered if she needed help walking. 

"He's off doing whatever. I'm supposed to be asleep but the TARDIS wouldn't let me into my room." 

The woman frowned up at the ceiling. "That's rude you know, Clara needs rest." 

Clara felt her jaw drop to her feet when the TARDIS let out a noise that sounded like an apology and her bedroom door appeared next to her. "How did you do that? She never listens to me." 

"The old girl can be a bit touchy. But you should go get some rest. I can find the Doctor on my own."

Clara hesitated for a minute. What if this woman really was a threat to the Doctor and had been lying this whole time? But the TARDIS listened to her and the TARDIS  _ barely _ listened to the Doctor. "Alright. Nice to meet you." She shuffled through the door and into her room, thankful to finally be getting some sleep. 

***

The Doctor glared at the ceiling when the TARDIS cut power to his amp, making his new guitar sound rather pitiful, all things considered. "I've done all the repairs you needed, can't I just have a break?" 

The TARDIS grumbled and flickered the lights again, insisting that he leave the room. The Doctor groaned and put the guitar down. "Fine. But you better not be trying to get me under the console again. My back can't take it." That was a lie and they both knew it. This body may look old but he certainly didn't feel it. 

He followed the lights down the hall, not really focusing on where he was going until he collided with a person. "What are you still doing up?" He barked and winced internally, this body was more gruff than the last one and it wasn't going over very well with Clara. 

The person- blonde and  _ not _ Clara- his mind supplied helpfully, snorted. "Blimey you're rude. Is that what passes for 'hello' with you nowadays?" 

The Doctor's jaw dropped as he gaped down at her. "But you're- you can't- how the fuck are you even here?" 

Rose winced, eyes getting a bit sad, "Bit of a convoluted process, that. But if I'm no longer welcome, you can just drop me off with Jack-" 

"No, no, no, no!" The Doctor said quickly, realizing his mistake. "No, sorry, I seem to really like that word this time around. Can't stop saying it. I just- how are you here, Rose? You're supposed to be off living a happy human life with Handy." 

"Handy?" Rose asked, her nose wrinkling. "You really call him Handy?" 

"Well what did you call him?" The Doctor asked. 

"'The Doctor' or John Noble on all the paperwork." 

"Ah." There was a moment of strained silence before it finally clicked. "Rose, you're here." He said, still not believing it. 

Rose nodded. "Yup. And I'd like to stay, if you'll let me." 

"How long?" 

"Forever, obviously."


End file.
